AWEN Consulting

28/10/2026

Meet our new partner, you won’t believe who it is 🤯

26/10/2026

Greenwashing is when a business makes its products or services appear more environmentally friendly than they really are.

Vague claims like “eco-friendly” or “sustainable” can mislead consumers when they aren't backed by evidence. And the consequences can be costly.

For example, GLAD was ordered to pay $8.25 million in penalties over misleading claims about ocean plastic in its bags.

With the EU's EmpCo Directive now applying, businesses need to pay closer attention to how they communicate their environmental credentials.

✅ Make specific, evidence-based claims.
✅ Be transparent about what your product actually delivers.
✅ Ensure your packaging and marketing don't create a misleading impression.

Read the blog on 'EmpCo and Packaging: The New Rules for Green Claims Are Here' to learn more and make sure your sustainability claims are backed by substance, not just marketing. Link in bio

23/10/2026

22/10/2026

Just because packaging is recyclable in theory doesn't mean it will be recycled in reality.

Whether packaging actually gets recycled depends on more than the material itself. It needs to be collected, sorted, processed and turned into something new, and all that requires the right infrastructure at every step.

For brands choosing packaging, it's worth looking beyond the recycling symbol and asking what happens after the customer puts it in the bin.

Because good packaging design considers not just how a product is made, but what happens when it's finished with.

Understand your packaging's real-world recyclability. Book a free call and we’ll talk through better options for your product. Link in bio ☎️

19/10/2026

A compostable pack in the recycling bin is a contaminant.

It looks like the responsible choice, and in the right system it is. Drop it in kerbside recycling, and it becomes a problem for everything around it. Sorting equipment can’t reliably separate it from conventional plastic, so it ends up baled with recycled material. If enough contamination is found in a load of recycled materials, it risks the buyer rejecting the whole batch and it getting sent to landfill, good material included.

There, the compostable packaging breaks down slowly over decades without oxygen and releases methane, which traps around 28 times more heat than CO2 over 100 years.

Every market runs its own collection systems, so the right material depends on where your pack actually ends up. Many clients arrive at AWEN set on compostable. We map what their market can process, then design for that.

Understand your packaging's real-world recyclability. Book a free call, and we’ll talk through better options for your product. Link in bio ☎️

17/10/2026

Not all bioplastics are equal 👀 This chocolate wrapper can be composted OR recycled with paper. Here’s why 🍫

15/10/2026

Once, on a business trip to South Australia, I walked into a Zambrero and ordered a Mexican bowl. Extra guacamole, obviously.

I told them I was dining in, so I expected a proper plate.

Instead, it came in a disposable bowl with a lid. The guacamole got its own little container, with its own little lid.

I asked if I could have it on a reusable plate.

The attendant smiled: "Don't worry, it's compostable packaging."

So I asked the obvious question: "Where's the compost bin?"

She paused. "We only have the general waste bin."

So my "compostable" bowl, lid, guac cup and second lid were going exactly where every other piece of packaging goes. Landfill. And in landfill, without oxygen and the right conditions, compostable packaging doesn't compost. It just sits there.

This isn't just one shop. A lot of cafés and restaurants have swapped all packaging and reusable plates and cups for compostable versions, believing that makes them sustainable. But if there's no compost bin, no collection and no facility to process it, the only thing that has changed is the label.

"Compostable" has become the answer that ends the conversation. It sounds responsible, so nobody asks what actually happens next.

A sustainable product without a system around it is just a nicer-looking piece of waste. And for a customer sitting down to eat, the most sustainable option was the simplest one: a plate that gets washed and used again.

Have you seen something like this, a good idea that fell short in the last step?

12/10/2026

Bioplastics have grown significantly over the past decade. But our waste systems haven't necessarily grown with them.

Around a decade ago, global bioplastics production capacity was measured at roughly 1.7 million tonnes. Today, reported global biobased plastics capacity is around 2.3 million tonnes — and is forecast to reach 4.7 million tonnes by 2030.

But there is an important misconception hiding behind the word ""bioplastic"":

Bioplastic does not mean compostable.

A bio-based plastic describes where its feedstock comes from. It can still behave just like conventional plastic.

For example, bio-PE and bio-PP are chemically equivalent to their fossil-based counterparts. They are not designed to biodegrade or compost. At end of life, they need to go through the appropriate plastics recycling system.

Other materials may be biodegradable or industrially compostable — but that creates a different challenge.

A compostable pack still needs to be correctly identified, separately collected and accepted by an appropriate organic-waste treatment facility. Being technically compostable does not mean it will compost wherever it ends up.

And this is where I think the market has a problem.

Material innovation has moved quickly. Collection systems, sorting infrastructure, composting capacity and consumer labelling haven't always kept pace.

We now have packaging that may be:

📌 bio-based but recyclable as conventional plastic;
📌 bio-based and industrially compostable;
📌 biodegradable but fossil-based; or
📌 partially bio-based and non-biodegradable.

Yet to a consumer, many of these packs can look almost identical.

The next phase of bioplastics cannot just be about developing new materials.

We need to design the system around them too — from clear disposal labels to collection, sorting, recycling and composting infrastructure.

Otherwise, we risk developing better materials without giving them a realistic end-of-life pathway.

11/10/2026

Let’s celebrate with me at the Sustainable Packaging Summit! Link in bio

08/10/2026

Words like “eco-friendly”, “recyclable” and “sustainable” are claims — and claims need evidence.

If you say your packaging is **recyclable**, can you demonstrate that the complete packaging format — including materials, coatings, labels, inks, adhesives, closures and other components — is compatible with the collection, sorting and recycling system in the market where you sell it?

If you claim “made with recycled content”, do you have supplier documentation confirming the percentage and source?

If you claim your packaging has a lower carbon footprint, what is the baseline, what lifecycle stages were assessed, and what data supports the reduction?

And if you call a material compostable, under what conditions, according to which standard, and within what timeframe?

Environmental claims should be specific, measurable and supported by evidence — not simply words that sound sustainable.

I recommend auditing every environmental claim on your packaging and asking one simple question:

Could we prove this claim if a regulator, retailer or customer challenged it?

If the answer is no, the claim needs to be revised or removed.

If you need support reviewing the technical evidence behind your packaging claims, get in touch with us at AWEN Packaging Consulting.

And if you want to start the review yourself, download our **Packaging Audit Checklist** - link in bio